The Green Gender Divide
Men are falling behind in the fight for climate change justice. Why?
Research has shown that men emit 16% more greenhouse gasses than women, spending more money on things like fuel and meat and taking less action to fight back against the industries that damage the planet. The current thinking sitting with critics across the globe right now is that the toxic masculinity bubbling up through mainstream culture is the culprit.
What are some of the social pressures asserted by toxic masculine ideals that might be pushing men to take a step back from environmental choices, or even to make choices that harm the planet more…
Well, the the idea that masculinity requires physical strength and size is one, which goes hand in hand with chomping on juicy red meats. Think “Men hunt, women gather” mentalities. (men actually do eat 28% more meat products and with women and people with uterus’s being the ones who actually get periods the logic isn’t really logic-ing.
Then theres the nasty ideas around masculinity that demand men hold back from showing emotions - sadness, fear, even compassion for people, animal and the planet might raise alarm bells, so under that theory - caring about the planet is ‘for girls’.
Masculinity has also been linked to driving, and men do drive more than women. (see a 2025 research paper specifically into the Gender Gap in Carbon Footprints here.)
On the flip side, women and girls are now disproportionately affected by extreme weather. Women and girls make up the majority of the planets impoverished population, and in poor rural areas (and areas where women don’t have the same working rights as men) their livelihoods are often closely ties to the nature around them.
This quote from the UN gets into the details for us:
“Particularly in rural areas, women and girls are often responsible for securing food, water, and firewood for their families. During times of drought and erratic rainfall, rural women work harder, walk farther and spend more time securing income and resources for their families. This can also expose them to increased risks of gender-based violence, as climate change exacerbates existing conflicts, inequalities, and vulnerabilities.
When extreme weather disasters strike, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men, mostly due to limited access to information, limited mobility, decision-making, and resources. An estimated 4 out of 5 people displaced by the impacts of climate change are women and girls. Acute disasters can also disrupt essential services, including sexual and reproductive health care, compounding the negative impacts for women and girls.”
However, where it later suggests that this positioning makes women & girls the best option to fight the frontlines of our battle to save the planet I disagree. It’s like police putting a curfew on women when the Yorkshire Ripper was killing them - why not put a curfew on men, closing rules around the perpetrators instead of putting more pressure on the victims?
Don’t take this the wrong way, climate change is going to affect us all. In the exact same way that those living in the Global South or in poverty are beginning to suffer its affects whilst the mega-rich zoom about in their private jets - it may get to some demographics last, but you can’t outrun the weather. But understanding the ways that discriminatory structures affect us all is a hugely important part of breaking everyone’s shackles.
When we look at fashion - it’s no different. We see so many brands making county reworked clothes for the girlies, or luxurious natural garments for women, even when it comes to charity and vintage shopping the tends to be a bias towards stocking more for women, using more female models and generally making their brands feel like a shopping destination. Which wouldn’t be a problem - except shopping, and showing a deep interest in fashion has historically been linked to femininity, teenage girls, and even still gets permeated with the idea that fashionable guys must be gay. With all those associations stacked against them, in a world where they’re also being radicalised by Andrew Tates and battling toxic masculinity in bucketloads through their phones, why would a guy feel prompted to look into ethical fashion and begin testing out new, experimental styles. They’d have to be pretty ballsy.
Disclaimer number 2 - that doesn’t mean i’m excusing anyone who doesn’t stand up for whats right, but we need to understand that structures like the patriarchy trap us all into roles that we shouldn’t be confined to, and it can infiltrate so deeply that we don’t even realise it is what’s guiding our choices.
All of our struggles are intertwined - the climate crisis is a gender issue, warfare and conflict is a climate issue, class issues are linked to racism, racism is linked to the environmental crisis - we could go on all day. And the sooner we can pick apart the societal structures that are holding us apart, effectively holding us back from making progress together, the sooner we can get on with trying to fix our mistakes.
Don’t mock guys for requesting dinner is served vegan, don’t lean into the toxic masculinity that encourages them to tear through life without looking back - instead praise the guys who are showing up to protests and thank the guys who are asking to carpool. Let’s lead with less stick, more carrot. (unless we’re talking about the richest 1% who burn 2x the carbon as the poorest 50% of the planets population - they can have all stick.)